ArtistInfo

Eddie & The Starlites

Band, *1940
Rock and R&B/Soul

US group from Brooklyn, NY. Troy Keyes was born in Pantego, NC, on March 13, 1940. A member of his church's choir throughout childhood, from the age of ten he grew up in Brooklyn, New York, there singing in street-corner doo wop groups in addition to studying dance at the Fred Astaire Studio. In 1955 Keyes joined a vocal group dubbed the Starlites (2) with Cliff Rice, Sony Eugene, Charlie Saunders & Vic Rice. The Starlites earned a record deal with Al Browne and his tiny Peak (5) label as a result of winning a local talent contest. Their single "Missing You" went nowhere, and in 1958 he joined The Velours, which cut several singles for the Cub label. Al Browne had several different groups which he called the Starlites. The story of Scepter Records starts with Florence Greenberg, who was a thirty-something housewife in the New Jersey suburbs of New York in the mid-1950s. The first single on the label (Scepter 1201) was "Why Why Why"/"Ugly Duckling" by Don Crawford & the Escorts. When Al was producing for the Scepter Label on some early releases, he took the Starlites with him. Here, They became Eddie & Starlites for their release in late December 1958 - cut in October at a split session with the Criterions/Kents. At that time the group has been much change members, completely different than the group on Peak and consists of Eddie Jenkins, Robert Honey, Teddy Odes, Vel Miller and Archie Price. Al Browne must have recorded them many times, because of the material that appeared years later on various labels. He used "Three Steps To Heaven" on his "Dyno Sounds" Moon LP. Five years later, the group’s next record was issued on Al’s reactivated Aljon label.